The Salina South boys basketball team played its first game in nearly a month Wednesday evening, and first game of 20201. It was also the first game of the Salina Invitational Basketball Tournament.

The Cougars tangled with the Concordia Panthers at the South High gym and came away with a big win.

South took an early lead, and lead 7 -1 midway through the first quarter. Concordia went on a 7 – 0 run over the final 3 minutes of the quarter though, and lead at the break 8 -7.

It would be a short-lived lead for the Panthers. South turned up the defensive pressure and began to get comfortable on offense. The Cougars lead at the half 19 -16.

South came out strong top start the second half, with Josh Jordan scoring the first 7 points of the game to begin the third quarter. The Cougars led by 10 at 37 – 27 to end the quarter. Then the fourth quarter was all South. Sophomore Te’Jon McDaniels had a big block, followed by an acrobatic one-handed slam dank as the Cougars pulled away for a 57 – 28 win.

Concordia had opportunities to keep the game close, but struggled from the free throw line, finishing 8 of 25 from the charity stripe.

South struggled early, looking like a team that hadn’t played in nearly a month. The Cougars started out 1 – 14 from the three point line before making more of an effort to work the ball inside.

Devon Junghans paced the scoring for South with 11 points.

The Cougars, who are now 6 – 0 on the season, play Liberal Thursday at the South Gym in their second game of the SIT.